Two Publishers

There was this weird guy at our hall, John Lynch, that had recently become a publisher. It always bothered me that even though he was a publisher the friends never really dignified him by referring to him as "Brother" Lynch. Well last night they finally did so when they announced that Brother Lynch had died. I only really talked to him once. Out in service we talked about the director Ed Wood. John had thrown out some reference to Plan 9 From Outerspace and I picked up on it. He was surprised. I really don't mind death but it's kind of a bummer that he wasn't able to get baptized before he went.

And on to another publisher, Prince. If he is serious about the whole thing that's all well and good, no harm, no foul. If this is another "change your name to a symbol" type-stunt then...then what? I know some people get all excited when celebrities become Witnesses as if that adds a level of legitimacy to our religion. The bad thing is that in the truth there is no room for celebrity. These former-celebrities will have a hard enough time adjusting to being meek and mild without the friends giving them celebrity attention. (In retrospect I probably shouldn't even have wrote this.)

I can't believe it's Friday already!

Video Vertigo

I used to be a hardcore video-gamer. As a kid I have fond memories of getting a new game and playing it nearly 24 hours a day, not even stopping to eat, trying to negotiate a nintendo controller and bowl of cap'n crunch.

My video gaming has curtailed somewhat. I still buy the new systems but only tend to play with them when really exciting games come out--in a nutshell new installments of the Final Fantasy and Zelda series I loved as a youth.

And then there is Tony Hawk - Pro Skater. I love, love those games and when I saw the commercial for the latest installment Tony Hawk's Underground I knew I had to make a trip up to Blockbuster and check it out. I rented it and played it for an hour last night until motion sickness set in and my thumb felt like it was ready to fall off.

This morning we locked the keys in the house. I had to borrow a ladder and send Mina in through the tiny bathroom window. What an ordeal!

That's A Spicy Meatball

Last night we had snack night at the book study. I made chipoltle flavoured meatballs. This provided the opportunity to use my food processor in new and exciting ways! I fired up the Cuisinart and ground my own pork. The meatballs were a hit and that made me very happy.

It was the highpoint of a bad night. I found that I was inexplicably depressed and on the verge of tears. I hate it when that happens for no reason.

Found out some good news. A second Kristin Hersh show has been added in Chicago on the 15th @ 10:00pm. So now Rebekah and I can catch the Aislers Set at the House of Blues at 7:00pm and then cruise over to the Old Town Folk School to catch Kristin. As an added bonus we got front row center seats for the Kristin show. As a super added bonus Mina is being watched by her aunt that weekend. Here's to good music and staying out late and getting falling down drunk (all except for the last part)! Rah! Rah!

Irritation

Sunday at the meeting this older sister comes up and asks me (straight-faced), "Are you one of those little people?". I soooo wanted to reply, "I prefer the term midget!". But, I didn't. I played the role of the mild-tempered brother and shrugged it off with a smile. Here it is Tuesday and it is still irritating. I hate how people feel they can make any comment about a man's physical appearance that nobody would ever make to a lady. How many times have you heard someone comment to a guy about him not having hair? How many times have you heard someone say, "it looks like you're gaining a little weight"? Arrrg.

--

Last night Brandon came over and we worked on the new song. We added a cheesy organ to the mix and some sin swoops. It sounds like 60's garage rock or something. Wild.

MP3

I downloaded my first album the other day and then another and then another. I'm no stranger to .mp3 downloads. Once upon a time I used Napster and when it went away I switched to alternatives. However, I would just download a few songs and if I liked them well enough I would go out and buy the CD. From what I hear of the RIAA presumably I was the only one who bought a CD based on an illegal download.

MP3's to me do not seem substantial. The album art is so much a part of the music experience that I do not get the same feeling from a CD-R with the band name scrawled on the cover with magic marker. Perhaps this is the reason some people hang on to their vinyl for dear life and turn their noses up at CD's?

But I signed up for this service called eMusic; because they were offering a free 50 song download tryout when you signed up for the service. I really wanted the Mates of State's albums and am out of money so I decided to give it a shot. I burned a CD-R and then used the office color laser to print out some cover art to decorate my otherwise naked CD-R. Still I would rather have the official CD--but it's hard to argue with free.

--

This weekend was dreary but it was the perfect weekend to lounge about on the couch in sweatpants, drinking hot-cocoa, and watching cheesy TV. Nothing much happened of note. We cleaned the downstairs "studio" in preperation for moving some band stuff over to my house. Brandon and I determined that my house was a better setup for practicing and recording. So if the other two (members of Mostly Minus) agree we'll pull everything over to my house--drum kit, PA system, multiple amps, guitars, and many, many cords.

Rebekah and I have been working on a new song called "a(l/t)titude"--another rocker along the lines of ATMOS 206 but more fiesty. It is pretty hot and very fun to play. Brandon will come over today and we'll try to match it with a lead synth. If it works it'll be a new 6a2 song. If not it goes back in the Anthony and Rebekah other band bin.

Notes

Last night at the meeting we had the big convention review. It is always fun to revisit your notes. Ours always start out good but the quality of the note taking decays over the length of the convention. Sunday's notes left me scratching my head and wondering what an ink sketch of the extremely fat brother in the disabled section had to do with "Give God Glory".

Our congregation was giving a lot of good comments in answer to the questions in the KM. Most of us know to hang on to our notes for these Service Meeting parts. However, when we got to the question, "What scenes from the drama standout in your mind?" nobody raised their hands. The question induced silence and blank stares. Maybe the drama was not very memorable. Or perhaps since nobody thought to takes notes on the drama an answer couldn't be given.

Metrosexuality

I'm just waiting for the metrosexual trend to get big enough to solicit comment from the Watchtower. I better go get my unibrow waxed while I still can.

The oddest thing to me about the whole gay thing that is happening right now is that Gay men are more prominent and visible in entertainment then the women. Television shows about gay women have little do with their sexual escapades and the whole lesbian thing is sort of played down. The guys are flaming. For the longest time I assumed that gay women were more palatable to people then gay men.

I'm reading a lot about restoration period england. Liza Picard has an excellent book on the subject, "Restoration London". It seems back then that lesbianism was tolerated, but buggery was a capital offense.

--

Best line from last night's South Park: "Get with the times. That is soooooooooo September 10th"

Monday, Monday, Sha-la-la-la-la

Shonen Knife was playing at the Creepy Crawl last night. I didn't go because:

1.) I'm broke.
2.) The Creepy Crawl is a dive.
3.) 6a2 was getting together.

But it was all good because:

1.) It was hamburger (mmmm...burger) night and I had some bacon (mmmm...bacon) to slap on mine!
2.) 6a2 was getting together.

So we fired up the new Juno and worked on the new song. I want to call it "album filler" but we decided that "divisive sight" is probably a better title. This is probably the first song that we are writing more or less together as a group instead of one person coming up with something and the others embelishing on it. Rebekah says it has a "soul vibe" to it. It reminds me of "Three's Company" for some weird reason that I cannot comprehend.
The new synth is working great! I love it! When we go back and revisit our other songs for the album I'm sure it'll get stuck in there.

I finally got around to putting up our last song paid_program up. I've been sitting on it for some time. This sucker was hard to do and was a great learning experience. I'm not 100% happy with it and sure that it'll be changed for the album but I was soooo ready to move on. To me it has a jazzy, hip-hop feel to it.

I've got more to say about more interesting stuff but I'll spread it out over the week...

If its tangy and brown you're in cider town

Friday - I finally got the diagnosis handed down.. Hiatal Hernia. Nothing too bad. My options are:

1.) Ignore it...
2.) Treat it with medicine...
3.) Fix it with surgery

I'm going with number 1, since it isn't too bad. Everything seems to looking up finally. I'm having movements but the colour is off. (taupe)

Saturday - Went apple picking. Boring. I got clocked in the head with some apples and nearly busted my lip. Alas I did not have some Newton epithany when it happened--I only felt pain. Rebekah thought it was funny.

At the riverfront they were having this frontier thing festival. It was so disgusting. Everywhere I looked there was some hairy, pimply butt cheek poking out of some fat guy's buckskin loin cloth. The dumb part was that it was frontier times so I understood the cowboys and indians. But there were dudes running around with kilts on. I think I even saw a pirate and a gypsie. But even in the frontier times white trash is still white trash. Hoosier's were pouring Bud-light into pottery jugs to add a level of authenticity to their drunken revelry.

When I got home I tried to get a hold of someone to go out to a show with me but I didn't. I went ahead and went to the Rocket Bar in St. Louis by my lonesome. Since I was going to be a loner I decided to try to dress to impress so I wouldn't look like too much of a loser. So I put on my vintage corduroy cowboy shirt with the pearl snap buttons. Bad move! It is polyester and as we learn on Queer Eye it doesn't breathe. I was suffocating the whole night. I almost broke down and bought a band t-shirt to change into. I didn't because I hate it when people are wearing the band t-shirt, especially when they just bought it. So I suffered in silence.

I Am The World Trade Center - Interesting. The guy had a Roland 808 and he just hit a button for each song. That was the extent of the playing. After that it was just jumping around on the stage and singing through a vocoder. The girl played the tamberine and danced and sang. It was dance music so I danced.

The Thermals - Not my kind of music but they weren't bad. Probably better live than on CD. While they were playing I hung out by the entrance to catch the breeze coming in and try to cool down.

Mates of State - Pretty good. I definately could see buying their CD down the line. The gal had this awesome organ, yamaha yc 45-d. It sounded so good. The songs were interesting and nice. With just an organ and a drumkit it could get old really fast but they kept a nice pace and changed it up quite a bit. Neither one of them had an exceptional voice but they sung together sweetly.

Analog Roam

Mouse Planet finally got around to posting my trip report from February. It is pretty boring and rife with errors and omissions so please do not feel compelled to read it. Mouse Planet runs those trips reports as a travel aid to those suckers (like me) that choose to go to Disney World.

....

We got our newest eBay purchase in the mail, a later model Roland analog synth. We got a good price on it and found out why when we hooked it up. Two keys did not work at all, one key fired too loud, one key went in and out. So I did a little Internet research and downloaded instructions on how to clean the connections. Hesitantly I grabbed a screwdriver and opened the instrument. The inside was pretty dusty as could be expected from something 18 years old. We cleaned up under the keys and managed to fix it! I can't believe it.

Plague & Fire, Reading & Writing

Last night I went to the library in hopes of grabbing the last available copy of Michael Moore's new book, Dude, Where's My Country?. It was onhold when I arrived so I grabbed some books off the shelf that will be needed as I research for my next novel.

The beginning of my next novel is to be set in London during the 1660's. (Since I will be ripping off Chaucer, Dickens, and the life of Joseph Merrick in this novel it seemed appropriate have the story in England, and centered on London.) So I started reading about the plague and the london fire that swept through the region. It is really fascinating reading and I've already began to get great ideas about where my characters will fit into this world.

Rebekah has finished reading my first novel and I drained an inkpen on my grammatical mistakes. More importantly she has provided insight as to where my timing might have been vague or innacurate or where certain events and motivations may not be so clear. I knew she would hate the end of the novel because it is purposely obscure to allow for the sequel if I would ever choose to write it.

From what I gather, she hates the story and questions whether or not it would have any chance of being published. However, she does believe that it is well written and interesting. Those are all my feelings exactly.

Playstation 3

I read this neat article regarding monkeys that could use their minds to move an electronic arm to play a game. Scientists implanted a chip in their brain to allow them to interact with the electronic arm by pure thought. The article then goes on to cite the possible applications in humans such as artificial limbs.

To me the obvious application as in next generation video game systems. Forget redesigning the controller! Throw the controller out the window and just start doing chip implants. Who needs hand eye coordination when you can just have eye-mind coordination. That would be cool! Or what about for pilots? Imagine if they could control fighter craft via their mind? That would be so neat.

And Now For The Punchline ...

A Now For The Punchline...

Come to find out I was just full of crap! Who knew? My CT scan didn't show anything remarkable save for an intestinal track packed fuller than a Tokyo rush-hour train. The pain in my side was just muscle strain from trying to get it moving. A viscious circle. 12 hours on the stool and enough laxatives to unclog an elephant and I'm a new man. I literally could see my bloated belly reducing in size before my eyes.

Violence

I saw a violent movie last night because I heard it was good. Now I don't believe that I'm any lofty standard when it comes to entertainment. If there ever was a weak spot it would be that. However, I just don't enjoy violence for the sake of violence. This film was simply about violence and the story was just an excuse to go from one violent episode to the next. It glorified it. As a rule I will not see any movie that has a gun displayed on the theatre poster (the exception is Star Wars of course, lasers being different than bullets). But I saw this movie because the poster only had a sword and Crouching Tiger was super cool. It left a bad taste in my mouth but the soundtrack sure was awesome!

Smooth Move

Ex-Lax. She gave me ex-lax.

So I was wrong. Best case scenario is still constipation, hence the ex-lax, but the worse case scenario as it turns out is cancer. There are a hundred other things in between. My grandmother just died of colon cancer so there is a huge red flag up. So I had to get some x-rays taken and if there is no change by Monday she wants me to get a cat-scan on my gut and I may have to have a video camera rammed up by arse or something for them to get a closer look at whatever is stopping me up.

The doctor kind of looked worried.

This weekend is the circuit assembly..

Crap

You never really appreciate what you have until it's gone. I woke up today and I couldn't move my bowels.

Yesterday, I had a sharp pain between my groin and my gut. I just kind of ignored it and hoped it would go away. Today I can't ignore it. I feel blocked, pinched, and backed up.

I made an appointment for the doctor tommorrow. Best case scenario she tells me I'm just constipated and gives me a laxative. Worst case scenario I have a hernia and will end up under the knife.

I don't mind seeing the doctor; but, I don't like having to drop trou in front of her. I just noticed today that she isn't an "M.D." but a "D.O.". I'll have to ask her is she can recommend a real doctor for me to start seeing. Maybe not. She kind of has this crazed stare that is disturbing.

Junk Shops

Yesterday on my lunch break I dropped in on some antique stores along the river in Alton. I'm kind of obsessed with looking for a combo organ and figured I might get lucky and find one stashed away in one of these shops.

These stores give me the creeps. They are in these old industrial buildings that are falling in on themselves. The buildings have been crudely sectioned off for antique dealers. So it's old run down items inside old run down buildings sold by old run down people.

Some stores are nice and organized whereas others are simply piles upon piles of refuse. Sometimes these piles provide a hedge-maze affect where you turn a corner and are suddenly at loss about how to find the exit. One shop was heavy into the religious memorabilia and I turned round to find myself staring face to face with a chipped wooden statue of St. Christopher and baby Jesus, St. Agnes and child Mary in porcelain, and a bleeding heart oil painting of Jesus nearby. It was kind of eery.

I never did find anything useful as I am into mod-items from the 60's and 70's and these stores tend to not have anything that "new".

--

Rebekah is reading my book right now and discovering error after error that my eyes simply do not see. I read right on through. It's always errors of omission. I tend to leave out words like "the", "a", "of". Almost like ASL or something.

--

Brandon has been giving out CD after CD of 6a2 music. If it were up to me I wouldn't; but I don't terribly mind. One thing is clear everyone seems to like "Trendsetters" the best. I told him when we recorded it that it would be the stupid novelty song that everyone likes. Pee-diddy. Poo-diddy. Har Har. It is my least favorite song. I think I may hate it. The token novelty song never does any band any good unless you are prepared to just do albums comprised of only funny songs, like They Might Be Giants. I am not but I can be a good sport and go along with it occasionally... Maybe I'll even join in. My next song is officially titled, "Poo-poo, wee-wee, smelly fart" ... or not

Hair

Every now and again I feel the need to reinvent myself--dimestore makeover.

I can't help but to notice that the current hair styles are pulling from the late seventies-early eighties. The emo look if you will. So I thought I would try to grow my hair out. I needed a hair cut two weeks ago but I resisted and resisted but I don't think I can hold out any longer. My hair is just a mess and uncomfortable. The dandruff that I always get in fall doesn't add anything.

I'd rather be unstylish then to have a mop of hair sitting on my head.

Parent's House

We went to my parent's house this weekend. Truth told, I could've done without it. They should be thankful for Rebekah because she always twists my arms until I consent to visiting. I am not a very family oriented person.

So we went down on Friday after I got off from work. It is a two and half hour drive which was made tolerable by the new Club 8 CD I got in the mail.

In order to get to my parent's house you have to descend down this windy rock road that weaves through thick trees. They have this country house with a creek that runs by their house.

Saturday I woke up and drove into the nearest town to waste time because there is literally nothing to do at my parents. Rolla is a college town; however, unlike other college towns there is absolutely nothing going on. No coffee-houses with psudeo-intellectual ramblings. No rock clubs. No record stores. No anti-war protesting. It's weird. I suppose because it is an engineering school that the majority of the enrollment is foreigners who stick to themselves and do foreign things after-hours and on the weekend in their little foreign communities.

In Rolla the only thing to do is to go to Super Wal-Mart. In all honesty there are hicks that take their girlfriends on dates there. Since it is hunting season practically everyone, man, woman, and child had their camouflage on. As if to suggest that they had to blend in and be ready lest some twelve-point buck jumps out from behind an underware rack.

I went to this pawn shop and Rebekah and I found this case which said 'yamaha piano' on the price tag. We tried to open it to see what was in it but one of the latches wouldn't budge. The 16-year old granddaughter of the owner came over and spent a good fifteen minutes trying to jimmy the latch open until finally it clicked.

It turned out to be a Yamaha CP-30 electric piano. It was neat and would've looked awesome on stage. The price-tag said $250 which was more than I had to give for it. However the owner told us we could have it for $150. I'm really looking for a combo organ or string-synth right now but the price made me consider getting it. We probably would've but the the thing weighed 100lbs and was much too big to fit in our little car so we opted out of it.

The girl was pretty nice and made me jealous when she said that she had a lot of guitars at her house. That her grandfather just let her take home whatever she liked. Rebekah asked whether or not she was in a band. She said that she didn't play guitar she just liked to hang them on her wall.

My brother and his wife were coming over for a weiner roast that afternoon so we went back to my folk's house. He is into indian artifacts and was hiking up to a nearby cave to sift for arrowheads. Mina lamented that she never gets to see "feather indians" just "dot indians" which was comical. I went with him for part of the way with Rebekah and Mina. The walk to the cave takes you through a big pasteur with woods on one side and a bluff-face on the other. It felt like Lord of the Rings and I could just imagine these big epic helicopter camera shots as Rebekah and I ran through the field recited lines from the movies and dodging cow crap. It's easy to be geeky when you're in the middle of nowhere.

That night we had a fire. Rebekah made the chili I mentioned a coupled days ago. I discovered how versatile it is. I ate it as chili-mac and then used it on a campfire hot-dog and then used it as tortilla chip dip. Mmmmmm chili. We rented the "Mighty Wind" DVD and I enjoyed watching it again as well as the deleted scenes.

Sunday I woke up and went to their meeting. There was a chinese sister there named "Ang Lee" and everytime she got called on I laughed because I kept thinking about the movie director. They have a chinese study group at the hall because they get a lot of interest from the chinese student community. Most of the kids are atheists and they study simply to learn English.

After the meeting we went to my brother's house for chicken and then back home...

Bling, Bling

"When the money keeps rolling in you don't ask why." - Evita

We got a couple of rebate checks in the mail at the beginning of last week for some paint purchases last spring. It was nothing special, just twelve bucks. But it was unexpected so it was neat and ended up being an omen.

a bit later Rebekah found work and I got a raise. All in the same week! We've been on a budget forever and always living check to check with just a little bit left over for extra things. And by extra things I mean a new CD or book every now again, nothing extravagant.

It'll be weird to have extra money each week. Extra money that is not tied to bills. Extra money to just blow. I've made more money before and it seems like we just ate out more. I'd really like to use the money for something more worthwhile because there is no telling how long it'll last.

Maybe a few home improvement projects. Perhaps some new furnishings. New clothes? So many possibilities. Maybe we'll just save it for the big expensive Tokyo trip I've never been able to do yet. I don't know. For some reason I'm not materialistic so I have trouble picturing what we could buy. We've been strapped for cash for so long I don't even know.

But first things are first... take care of debt. We owe the other half of our property taxes and then we owe my mother-in-law for some money we borrowed from her. Then we have to pay off the remaining balance on our upcoming vacation package but after that....

I'm Gonna Drink Bacardi Like ...

It's my birthday. Please do not fear that I'm celebrating it. I hate it! I turn 27 today. I really feel like It's all downhill after 24.

Things I like about getting older. Getting smarter and developing my skills.

Things I don't like about getting older. Getting fatter and being out of touch with what is hip and youthful.

To quote Winterson, "Time is a great deadener."

My sister used to do a comic strip and three years back she drew this:

Freaks

I love freaks but I cannot really appreciate them like people once did. There aren't any real "freak shows" any more where human oddities are on display. You have pretenders like the "Jim Rose Circus Side Show". I'm sorry but a guy dangly lead weights from his testacles is not the same as a boy with flipper feet. Human oddities are delegated to spot appearances on Maury Povich. It gets them exposure but it hardly provides a living like it once did.

It is early October and the radio is filling with ads for haunted houses. If I had the time and money (I have neither) I would like to have an old fashioned carnival freak show during the Fall season. I want carnival barkers in top hats luring in passersby. I want dog faced boys. I want living skeletons. I want pickled punks, mummified mermaids, and pinheads. I want to have geeks biting the heads of chickens. It would be splendid!

There is quickly coming a time when such huge variations in humanity will be erased. Is it wrong to appreciate them while they are still around?

--

Unrelated: I burned a ream of paper and printed out my novel. Being able to hold it and feel its weight makes it seem more real then when it had existed as a Word document. I'm going to let Rebekah read it and give me her 2 cents. I'm dedicated the novel to three people. One has read it, one will read it soon, one may never read it. In her column this month Jeanette Winterson talks about how it takes a while to become detached from a book you have written. During the writing you invest so much of yourself it is hard to look at it objectively or see it as something seperate from you. That's where I'm at now. It needs to be edited, badly, but now is not the time. I really need to look at it again in a few months and see what I think.

Mummy the Peepshow

I was just looking over Mummy The Peepshow's 2003 USA Tour Diary last night. It's cute in that engrish sort of way.

I even made it in one of their pictures...kind of, sort of. I'm stage front, right in the middle.